As the title implies, I went to see the new Indy movie, Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. I admit I’m a little more than ‘fashionably late’ in seeing it but I’ve been busy — so sue me.
First off, I was expecting a lot from Indy IV. After all, the other three Indys are a ‘movie series’ so brilliant that I can hardly do it justice with words. It’s just a big a part of my childhood as is the NES or MacGyver.
In an effort not to get sidetracked, the movie:
The thing I was dreading the most about the new Indy was, that there’s always a possibility when directors resurrect an old classic is that they try to modernize it. Thankfully, Indy 4 was set in 1957. This time, as time has passed from the previous adventures, instead of treasure-seeking Nazis there are treasure-seeking Russians. And with the exception of Cate Blanchett — who in my opinion wasn’t the most convincing KGB agent, but otherwise a good choice — the comrades were very nicely cast.
The inclusion of a extraterrestrial element to the movie was a little bold, since Indys have had a pretty solid historical backing to the adventures Dr. Jones as embarked on. But for some reason this didn’t bother me (usually I’d be).
As always, a Spielberg movie was of high caliber. The camerawork was top notch and as always, Harrison Ford did a tremendously good job as Indy. You could of course see that the man has aged somewhat, given that the last Indy was in 1989 and even then he wasn’t exactly young :) But nevertheless, it didn’t seem to hinder him. Shia LaBeouf, who plays Indy’s sidekick in this action-adventure extravagance, outperformed himself. He was mediocre in Transformers, even though he was a pretty decent choice for the geeky kid — this time though, he said more than just repeating ‘no, no, no, no!‘ all the time.
I’m not entirely convinced that Steven should make a fifth Indy. There hasn’t even been rumors (I think) about a “Indy V” but I’m just saying, maybe there shouldn’t. The first three were so good that making more might create the “Matrix Effect”, meaning the movie series gets worse and worse down the line. I’m afraid they might do the same thing to Star Wars, since Episodes 7-9 exist as books. But that’s a different story entirely.
So in conclusion, go see the new Indiana Jones if you haven’t already. It’s reminiscent of the old kick-ass Indys of yesteryear. I at least enjoyed myself alot.